Sep 2, 2011

Editorial:

Standing With The Migrants >From The
Margins

There are two things that have
greeted us during the last few weeks—and these two things concern us all
immigrants and migrants of this land.

We are not
going to enter into debate on whether the more appropriate technical term that
we use is that of being settlers—for we are, indeed, settlers as well,
coming as we are from another land, our ways to coming to America and settling
here varied and rough and unpaved at times.

The fact of the case is this: that
we have been able to carve out a piece of our earth under the sun, and now
trying to guard this piece of earth as fiercely as we can.

It is our prize for eking out a life
here.

But the stories of our coming over—of our migrating to America, of our ‘coming to America—are not of the same beginning, not of the same middle, and
certainly not of the same denouement.

Out there are the
others—because Othered—migrants and immigrants, some of them branded,
like herd, with that label that does not do justice to their sufferings and
sacrifices: indocumentado, illegal, ‘tago-ng-tago’ (or someone who
keeps on hiding, hiding away from the shadows of immigration officers who are
out there to handcuff and deport them).

We have editorialized about the
DREAM Act—Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors—and we
have argued for the benefits it will give not only to the potential naturalized
citizens who have come to this land, but to the larger American community.

We look at the same issue now, and
we follow the same argument: that the Obama Administration initiative to give a
chance to a number of those who can contribute to the fulfillment of that
American Dream while at the same time pursuing it, is worth a try.

President Barack Obama, in his
executive order, has said it right: that a path must be cleared to those people
who have come here as a child, who have had no mind of their own but had been
brought here involuntarily, have imbibed the ways of American life, have not
known any other country but the United States, and have equipped themselves
with citizenship skills by, among others, educating themselves to the ethos of
America that they know as their own homeland.

The initiative is worth a try.

Cecilia Muñoz, White House director
of intergovernmental affairs, has stated clearly what this initiative is all
about, what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Memo of June 17, actually
means: an initiative that gives the Department of Homeland Security and the
Department of Justice the task to review and ‘clear out low-priority
cases on a case-to-case basic and make room to deport people who have been
convicted of crimes or pose a security risk.’

Echoing the same argument for having
the yet-to-be approved DREAM Act as a legislative initiative that has given
some hopes to the deserving migrants, ICE Director John Norton says of the
‘prosecutorial discretion’ of his agency, that includes nineteen
factors, including the coming of the potential beneficiary to the United States
as a child of 15 or below, the pursuit of at least two years of college
education, or service in the military.

There are criticisms to this initiative, of course, including the accusation that this is
a dictatorial act on the part of the president, and that it is a categorical
relief for any form of immigration violation.

Add this to the charge that this is
unconstitutional.

We believe otherwise.

The initiative is at the heart of
what the United States is all
about.

We have
much to gain when we recognize that this country of immigrants will be made
greater by the influx of human resources that have much to offer—and our
marginalized migrant deserve this recognition of what they can do, and the
relief the magnanimous spirit of our laws can offer.

There are about more than 10 million
estimated illegal immigrants in the country at the present.

Of this number, there are 300,000
cases for review in the immigration system, many of which do not fall under the
category of ‘posing a serious threat’ but promising a contribution
to the greatness of the United
States.

Apart from the indigenous peoples
and the native Hawaiians, we all have come to settle—to migrate—to
this land at one point of our family narrative and history.

The United
States that we know is built
upon this vision of a great land and a great mix of peoples with their great
mix of gifts and potentials.

We cannot now afford to watch from
the sidelines and see the indocumentados, the ‘illegals,’ and the
‘tago-ng-tago’ children and young people to lose their chance at
pursuing the American Dream for which they have come here through their elders,
and for which dream they have been living for most of their young lives.

Our ethical duty is to stand with
them—to stand with the marginalized migrants—and be counted.

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New Hours for County Immigrant Services

WAILUKU – Effective April 1st, the County of Maui Immigrant Services Division announced its new office hours.
In addition, the division will be re-opening its Lahaina office starting this month.
The new hours for the following offices are:
Wailuku
Monday-Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. to Noon
Molokai
Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Lanai
Monday and Wednesday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Friday 8:00 am-12:00 noon
Lahaina
First Thursday of every month from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
For more information call 270-7791.